Andreas Papandreou

Andreas Papandreou, in full Andreas Georgios Papandreou, (born February 5, 1919, Chios, Greece—died June 23, 1996, Ekáli, near Athens), politician and educator who was prime minister of Greece from 1981 to 1989 and from 1993 to 1996.

The son of Georgios Papandreou, he attended the American College in Athens (Modern Greek: Athína) and studied law at the University of Athens. A Trotskyite, he was imprisoned briefly by the dictator Ioannis Metaxas and, when freed, fled to the United States, where he received a Ph.D. (1943) from Harvard University and obtained U.S. citizenship (1944). After serving in the U.S. Navy, he taught at Harvard, the University of Minnesota, and the University of California, Berkeley (1955–63). When his father became prime minister of Greece in 1963, Andreas gave up his U.S. citizenship, returned to his native country, and won election to the Greek parliament. His close association with the left wing of his father’s party, the Centre Union, and his rapid rise in the government and the party hierarchy created controversies that contributed to the fall of his father’s government in 1965.

Papandreou was jailed for eight months after the military coup of 1967 and was then released. He again went into exile, teaching in Stockholm and Toronto and leading the democratic resistance to the junta from overseas. After the collapse of the Greek military dictatorship in 1974, he returned home and formed the left-wing Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK). His new party steadily increased its popularity and in 1981 won a sweeping victory, capturing 172 of the 300 seats in parliament.

As a candidate, Papandreou had advocated quasi-socialist domestic reforms while also calling for removal of U.S. military bases from Greece and for Greece to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). But once in power, he pursued more moderate policies. The marriage and religious laws were liberalized, and some government functions were decentralized, but the leases on U.S. military bases in Greece were renewed, and Greece remained in NATO. The generous social welfare programs undertaken by his government could be financed only by public borrowing on a large scale.

Papandreou’s combination of pragmatic policies with a strident anti-American rhetoric proved popular. His party won a decisive victory in the general elections of 1985, and he continued as prime minister. Late in Papandreou’s second term, his government was weakened by a grave financial scandal that forced the dismissal or resignation of three cabinet ministers. Papandreou’s popularity was further diminished by his highly publicized relationship with a much younger woman before divorcing his second wife. Moreover, the huge budget deficits incurred by his government had led to rising levels of inflation and a growing foreign debt. In the elections of June 18, 1989, PASOK lost its majority in the parliament, and Papandreou resigned from office on June 19. In 1992 he was acquitted of corruption charges stemming from the financial scandal, and he continued as the leader of PASOK. PASOK won a landslide victory in general elections in October 1993, and Papandreou again became prime minister, serving until ill health forced him to retire in January 1996. His son, George A. Papandreou, was elected prime minister in October 2009.